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Developed at Google, MapReduce is a distributed programming model intended for processing massive amounts of data in large cluster. The MapReduce framework has the open source Mule Integration Platform at its core. In this article Eugene Ciurana, Director of Systems Infrastructure at LeapFrog Enterprises, outlines how open source components, particularly Mule, can be utilized with MapReduce. Eugene also shows that writing SOA apps for the Mule integration platform can result as a side-effect of the implementation. This is arguably the most comprehensive article on "how to use Mule for building a system" ever written.

Mystery surrounds the identity of four winners in Google's $10m Android mobile applications competition, announced last November. The search giant Tuesday named 47 of 50 developers who've won the first round of its challenge to build mobile applications for the yet-to-materialize Android phone. The individuals will each get $25,000.

Mark Shuttleworth, head of Canonical and founder of the Ubuntu project, has called on other Linux developers to synchronize releases of new versions of their distros. He also pledged to deliver the next Long Term Support (LTS) release of Ubuntu, version 10.4, in April 2010 - unless, of course, Red Hat, Novell and Debian decide to co-operate on a synchronized release at a different time.

The Fedora distribution has a reputation for innovation, and the new Fedora 9, released today, is no exception. With features that range from easy filesystem encryption to support for the ext4 format, it includes a wide range of features that are likely to become standard in other distributions in the next six months. But for Paul W. Frields, who became Fedora project leader in February, what distinguishes the release is less the technology than the community that supports it, and how the technology contributes to the larger free software world.

Puppy Linux 4.0 has been unleashed recently. It is a major distribution release version of this well-known mini-distro that is why I took some time to check it out. I have used Puppy Linux 3.01 before, and I have said that it was more than just a cute-named distro. So what are the improvements of this latest edition over its predecessor? Has it really learned new tricks?

Debian has warned of a vulnerability in its cryptographic functions that could leave systems open to attack. The use of a cryptographically flawed pseudo random number generator in Debian's implementation of OpenSSL meant that potentially predictable keys were generated. Versions of Debian's OpenSSL packages starting with 0.9.8c-1 (released in September 2006) are potentially vulnerable.

The Fedora project today released a new version of its completely free and redistributable Linux distribution. Showcasing lots of next-generation Red Hat features, Fedora 9 also boasts new features of its own aimed at making the distribution appeal more to newer Linux users.

Linux Game Publishing has announced a Linux port of "Sacred Gold," an action role-playing game first published for Windows three years ago. The U.K.-based game publisher plans to ship the title in August of this year, priced at 27 GBP (~ $50). Sacred Gold was created by Ascaron Entertainment, of Gutersloth, Germany. It will be the first action role-playing game carried by LGP, the company said.

A British watchdog agency said Tuesday it had complained to European Union regulators that Microsoft Corp.'s new file format for storing documents discouraged competition. Britain's agency for education and information technology said it wanted to help the EU with an investigation it launched in January into whether the software giant deliberately withheld information from rivals. The current controversy centers on the ability of other companies to create products compatible with Microsoft's new file format, Office Open XML, which stores Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

The GNOME SlackBuild GNOME 2.22.1 Desktop is now available for users of the latest Slackware 12.1 release! There have been a lot of improvements in this latest GSB release, including the move to PulseAudio, fewer package replacements, a GNOME-integrated Compiz-Fusion setup, the latest NetworkManager, Abiword 2.6, and OpenOffice2.4 built for GNOME, a richer Mono C# suite, as well as all the great features of GNOME 2.22.

"About 45% architecture updates (counting the include files too), about 30% drivers, and about 25% odds-and-ends. The odds-and-ends are mainly Documentation, filesystems (mostly cifs) and core kernel (scheduler updates etc)," said Linux creator Linus Torvalds, announcing the 2.6.26-rc2 kernel. He added, "if you read the shortlog and get the feeling that most of it is pretty boring small details, you'd be right. There is little exciting there."

Linspire, the San Diego, Calif.-based Linux distributor, is continuing to build up its CNR (Click-N-Run) software installation system with partnerships with Ubuntu parent Canonical and the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint distribution. Linspire recently announced that its beta CNR service now supports the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron release and Linux Mint versions 4.0 and 5.

Wirth's Law states software becomes larger, more complex, and slower: in the end the win from Moore's Law end is washed out by the loss from Wirth's Law. Let's compare OpenOffice.org against these Laws to see which one wins.

The latest release of Red Hat's community Linux distribution, Fedora 9, a.k.a. 'Sulfur', is out. The Sulfur release adds a host of new features, including virtualization, authentication, networking, file system and yes, even features that will benefit desktop users. "All of those things really put the lie to any claims that Red Hat is abandoning the desktop," Fedora Project Leader Paul Frields said.

Blue Heron Network has demonstrated an Ubuntu Linux-based touchpanel PC aimed at helping patients in the early stages of neuro-degenerative conditions like Alzheimer's stay independent for as long as possible. The WiFi-enabled Reside@Home Monitor keeps homecare patients connected to family and caregivers via the Internet, the company says.

All communities develop rituals over time. One of the enduring linux-kernel rituals is the regular heated discussion on development processes and kernel quality. To an outside observer, these events can give the impression that the whole enterprise is about to come crashing down. But the reality is a lot like the New Year celebrations the author was privileged enough to see in Beijing: vast amounts of smoke and noise, but everybody gets back to work as usual the next day.

This is an advertisment for Vista on the Novell website. I especially like the line "Migrating to Vista? We can help you make the leap" alongside a picture of man in suit and tie plummeting to the earth off a tall building. Equally helpful was the ominous exhortation "Prepare now, Windows Vista is coming".

This document describes how to set up TrueCrypt 5.1a on Debian Etch (GNOME). Taken from the TrueCrypt page: "TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc)."

Without an Internet connection, installing applications in Linux is a nightmare because of package dependencies. The aim of this guide is to help install applications in Ubuntu (should work with all apt based distribution with minimal modifications) when there is no Internet connection is available.

Are you looking for a free and open source music player that you can use no matter which operating system you boot or switch to during the day? Meet aTunes, a small competitor to both Amarok and Apple's iTunes. Its name sounds like a hybrid of the two, and it tries to have a unique combination of the best of both user experiences. aTunes is a Java-written, cross-platform music player. It supports a variety of common audio formats, including both open source and proprietary codecs, due to its MPlayer audio engine back end. Like many quickly evolving programs, it has a few issues, but the better outweighs the bitter.