Showing all newswire headlines

Back in August we were the first web-site to share how SplashTop Linux could be hacked and the following month we shared about a SplashTop security problem where the contents of any attached hard drives are exposed freely to the network, if you're not running a hardware firewall. This issue was discovered by Kano, a Phoronix Forums member and the developer behind the Kanotix distribution. DeviceVM had been notified of this blatant security issue, but it still appears the problem has gone unresolved.

You are using debian on Dell or HP servers if you want to know the serialnumber and model you can use the following procedure.This is verr useful when you are connected remotely and find the details. Dump Desktop Management Interface data.The Desktop Management Interface provides a standardized description of a computer’s hardware, including characteristics such as BIOS serial number and hardware connectors. dmidecode provides a dump of the DMI data available from the BIOS. It is used as a back-end tool by other hardware detection programs.

It is very frustrating when you don’t know every programming language (I’m a PHP guy). There are so many things I’d like to change in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (it is still a great Linux OS), but don’t have the time/knowledge to do. I am very active in promotion, but maybe someone who knows his stuff will read this list of ideas for inspiration.

Battle for Wesnoth is one of the most popular and played turn-based strategy (TBS) games on Linux, if not the most popular. It's a free, open-source community-driven project which has done some amazing improvements since its initial release, in 2003. It comes with wonderful concepts for gameplay, it includes great 2D artwork and music, and more important, it can keep you playing inside a fascinating universe, either online in multiplayer battles or in single-player mode in beautiful campaigns or single-map mode versus AI.

The release date for Fedora 10 (codenamed Cambridge) is less than one month away and as a result this Red Hat distribution will go into a development freeze beginning Tuesday. The Fedora 10 Beta occurred in late September, but over the course of the past month there have been three snapshot releases. In the third and final snapshot that was released this past week there are new improvements to this popular Linux distribution along with a new desktop background and better integrated version of Plymouth to greet its users. We have also recorded a new video showing the enhanced start-up process via kernel-based mode-setting.

LXer Feature: 26-Oct-2008

Highlights from the LXer newswire this past week include a hands on with the mobile version of Firefox called Fennec, OpenOffice 3.0 is downloaded over 3 million times in its first week of availability and after a successful pilot program the Russian Government decides to make Open Source software the standard for all of its schools. Also, a review of the Ohio Linuxfest 2008, Linux netbooks start to make a dent in Windows sales, Dillo finally gets tabs and to wrap things up a Microsoft lawyer states that "we're all 'mixed source' now", smells like some good ole' fashioned FUD to me.

Inspired by QuickSilver for Mac OS X, Katapult is an application launcher for KDE designed to allow faster access to applications, bookmarks, and other items. It is plugin-based, so it can launch anything that is has a plugin for. Its display is driven by plugins as well, so its appearance is completely customizable. It was inspired by Quicksilver for OS X.

There is a battle going on out there in cell phone land involving the 3 hottest-of-hot cell phones. I write of course about the iPhone from AT&T, the G1 from T-Mobile and the upcoming Blackberry Storm from Verizon.

In December, Johnny Chung Lee, then a Ph.D. candidate, posted a five-minute video on YouTube that became an Internet sensation. To share his innovation, Johnny Chung Lee posted a video on YouTube. In it, he uses a Wii remote controller and “head tracking” glasses to make a screen image come alive. The video showed how, in a few easy steps, the Nintendo Wii remote controller — or “Wiimote” — could transform a normal video screen into a virtual reality display, with graphics that seemed to pop through the screen and into the living room. So far, the video has been seen more than six million times. That video, together with others that Mr. Lee, now 28, posted on YouTube, have drawn people to the innovator as well as his innovations. Video game companies have contacted him and, in September, M.I.T.’s Technology Review named him as one of its top innovators under 35.

The release date for Fedora 10 (codenamed Cambridge) is less than one month away and as a result this Red Hat distribution will go into a development freeze beginning Tuesday. The Fedora 10 Beta occurred in late September, but over the course of the past month there have been three snapshot releases. In the third and final snapshot that was released this past week there are new improvements to this popular Linux distribution along with a new desktop background and better integrated version of Plymouth to greet its users. We have also recorded a new video showing the enhanced start-up process via kernel-based mode-setting.

Miro is a free application for channels of internet video (also known as ‘video podcasts and video rss). Miro is designed to be easy to use and to give you an elegant fullscreen viewing experience. There are thousands of free internet video channels that you can watch. You’ll be able to download all the videos that each channel offers and when new ones are released, Miro will grab them automatically.

Yesterday I reviewed three classic first-person shooter games for Linux, Wolfenstein: ET, UT2004 and ioQuake3. Today I will continue with two other first-person shooter (FPS) games, natively available for Linux: Nexuiz and OpenArena. They both are currently maintained and the wonderful thing about them is that they all are completely open-source, free and usually available in all the major distributions.

Microsoft said Friday that it has joined a group that's developing a standard for open source messaging software known as the Advanced Messaging and Queuing Protocol (AMQP). "By joining the AMQP Working Group, Microsoft is aiming to contribute to the development of the specification in ways that will best promote interoperability for existing market implementations and provide customers with increased choice," said Sam Ramji, Microsoft's senior director for platform development, in a statement.

Openfiler is a high performance operating system tailored for use as a SAN/NAS appliance. This configuration will enable two Openfiler appliances to work in an active/passive high availability scenario.

BMW is developing an open-source platform for vehicle electronics. By taking the open-source approach, rather than using proprietary software, BMW aims to allow providers of infotainment services to develop plug-and-play applications. BMW is asking other automakers to join in its effort. But four other automakers that along with BMW took part in a panel discussion Tuesday at Convergence 2008, a conference on automotive electronics, are not as far along in their consideration of an open-source platform.

On Friday morning, I gave 3G wireless another chance. Maybe it was looking a gift horse in the mouth. Faster is better, and we should be grateful companies are continuing to invest in the networks we all rely upon. But after all the hype and anticipation, third-generation wireless infrastructure has been underwhelming, in my experience

This week, we're picking on the employees instead of the employers :) Last weekend, we poked fun at some of the insane want ads that companies put out when looking for IT talent. This week, to be fair, we're going to take a look at some of the goofy bloopers, funny blunders and (occasionally) serious bits of actual resumes that focus in on the unintentional humor that anyone who's ever had a part in the hiring process is familiar with.

The Free Software Foundation has been promoting a list of "high priority" free software projects, but are these projects really the highest priority project?

Debian Lenny comes with Iceweasel 3.0.3, which is actually Firefox with a changed name and a few minor changes. If you have Iceweasel 3.0.3 installed but want to test this new beta without changing anything to your system, just follow the steps below.

Microsoft needs to get rid of its chief IP lawyer and its patent strategy if it wants further efforts at interoperability to be taken seriously by open source vendors and users. In at least two interviews with IT publications this week, Horacio Gutierrez reaffirmed that the company intends to try and force open source companies to sign patent licensing deals or face lawsuits.