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Despite the recession, Cisco Systems and Digium are holding strategic events within days of each other in Miami, Florida. Cisco’s agenda is all business. Digium’s agenda is mostly technology. The VAR Guy’s agenda: Stirring up some controversy. Here's the scoop.

This tutorial describes how you can install Apache2 with mod_fcgid and PHP5 on Debian Etch. mod_fcgid is a compatible alternative to the older mod_fastcgi. It lets you execute PHP scripts with the permissions of their owners instead of the Apache user.

Issue #21 of Full Circle, the Ubuntu community magazine is now out with the usual lineup of tips, tricks and games. Highlights in this issue include more tips on using the command line to format output, part five of programming in C, and a case study on using the Creative Zen V music player in Ubuntu.

In December, General Patent Corp. announced it was working on behalf of Worlds.com to enforce its patents on "Scalable Virtual World Chat Client-Server System" and "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space," which date back to 1995. "Therefore, it would seem that General Patent Corporation and Worlds.com are taking the position that the above-referenced patents cover the idea of the computer architecture for a three-dimensional graphical multi-user interactive virtual world system. If so, this announcement is arguably a very thinly veiled notice to the virtual world industry that infringement suits are forthcoming for those companies who do not enter into a licensing deal with General Patent Corporation and Worlds.com."

Six projects, two days and one cause: creating open-source software to improve the lives of members of the disabled community. Over the weekend, 40 students participated in “SS12: Coding for a Cause” and created software to enhance the lives of disabled persons. Teams of UCLA students competed for prizes donated by the program’s sponsors: Mozilla, Google, Cisco – a networking equipment supplier – and Lockheed Martin, a global security company.

Debian's long-delayed 5.0 release (aka, "Lenny") will likely launch over the Valentine's-slash-President's day weekend, five months late, but with a lusty wink. A look at Lenny's new installer hints that Debian's long-cherished "when it's ready" release schedule may be headed for divorce court, though.

Much of the attention of the healthcare industry over the past several weeks has been focused on Washington and the various proposals before Congress to boost the faltering economy, including spending billions of dollars subsidizing health information technology. Meanwhile, another healthcare IT issue carries a lower profile but will have direct impact on the largest, integrated healthcare delivery organization in the country—the 153-hospital, 731-clinic Veterans Affairs Department healthcare system.

A developer of open source VoIP recording software is readying an embedded VoIP recording appliance. The OrecX VoIP Recording Appliance combines OrecX's Oreka TR Total Recorder application with a 1U, Linux-based, rack-mounted server aimed at the small-to-medium business (SMB) call-handling market, says the company.

SugarCRM, the open source customer relationship management software vendor, is giving its user base a sneak preview into its next generation of products. At its third annual SugarCon gathering Monday, the company previewed new CRM features, including an improved Web services framework, additional Cloud Connectors, and mobile customization features.

The first two days at linux.conf.au are dedicated to "miniconfs," which cover specific areas of interest. The 2009 event in Hobart, Tasmania included a miniconf for mobile Linux; your editor attended a few talks there. As might be expected, there is a lot going on with mobile Linux, and a lot of interest.

Some times, the least convoluted approach is the only one that works. Today's topic covers a little issue I ran into at work (which I actually do from time to time ;) that had me puzzled for a bit. If you're a grizzled Solaris/Slakware veteran like me, some of the newer features of Solaris 10 are pretty much lost on you until you absolutely "need" to understand them ;)

SME Server (http://www.contribs.org/) is a Linux distribution designed for the office environment, similar to Microsoft Small Business Server or the now defunct Linux based NetMax Server.

Instead of ignoring open source conferences, Microsoft continues to invade them. The latest example: A Microsoft general manager is scheduled to keynote Digium AsteriskWorld on February 3. Why is Microsoft paying such close attention to an event for open source IP PBX advocates? The answer is obvious.

UK-based online lingerie and nightwear retailer figleaves.com has turned away from Microsoft and to virtualisation and open source software to revamp the technology platform that will support its upcoming ecommerce site. The decision to move to Red Hat Linux and VMWare technology on HP hardware was taken in May last year when the company chose to implement a new ecommerce suite from ATG. Speaking to ZDNet.com.au sister site silicon.com, figleaves.com chief of technology Peter Pedersen said the retailer had outgrown the old system.

The Debian Installer team has released a second "release candidate" installer for Debian 5.0, codenamed "Lenny." In announcing the release, maintainer Otavio Salvador offered few clues as to when Lenny might finally ship, however.

A change to User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7 (beta) to make it “less annoying” inadvertently clears the path for a simple but ingenius override that renders UAC disabled without user interaction. Microsoft has officially responded to my concerns and continues to insist the functionality is “by design”, dismisses the security concerns and again leans towards they will not be addressing the issue for the final release of Windows 7.

Facing malware is a way of life in the digital world, and the pressure on everyone from home users to corporate giants to do all they can to minimize its damaging effects is immense. Just how much pressure there is was made quite clear on Saturday morning, as a routine update to Google's list of malware sites went horribly wrong, labeling every site in the company's database as dangerous and rendering the service unusable.

The so-called failure of Windows Vista has been heralded far and wide by industry watchers and assorted Microsoft haters. Microsoft was caught flat-footed without an operating system when the netbook phenomenon hit. Can Redmond can turn it around with Windows 7?

Bruce Allen is perhaps the world's best do-it-yourselfer. When he needed a supercomputer to crunch the results of gravitational-wave research, he built one with his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. That was in 1998, and since then he's built three more supercomputers, all in pursuit of actually observing gravitational waves, which theoretically emanate from black holes orbiting each other and from exploding stars but have never been directly observed.

We rightly celebrate how open source opens markets. But it can also close them. Take WiFi. It is still assumed by many property-owners that they can, and should, control what is done with electromagnetic spectrum within their properties. Because WiFi is low-power, high-frequency waves that attenuate quickly, someone with a substantial footprint can make this dream come true.