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The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project reported Aug. 27 that Brazil is finalizing plans for "all aspects" of its $100 laptop roll-out. Along with Argentina, Nigeria, and Thailand, Brazil had previously indicated interest in purchasing 1 million of the machines for needy children.

We've just released a milestone 1.1 version of Mirth, and have just launched our new site at http://www.mirthproject.org. Head over and contribute to the messages boards, wiki, and submit any bugs to our issue tracker. As always, thanks to our users and contributors!

When Linux was in its infancy, hardware support was one of the biggest issues for the open source operating system. Good drivers for everything from video, audio, network cards, human interface devices, and the like had to be reverse engineered and written from scratch by hackers. Broader support these days by major PC hardware and peripheral manufactures has made the Linux hardware compatibility more widespread, but no one's claming "mission accomplished" on this yet.

Instalinux.com is a handy Web site from which users can create customized installation images for a handful of different Linux distributions.

The hard-disk recorder (HDR) is the central component of the modern digital audio studio. The most basic feature of a high-quality HDR is the capability to record and play multitrack/multichannel digital audio at various sampling rates. However, with the addition of software amenities such as non-linear and non-contiguous editing operations, support for a variety of soundfile formats, and audio digital signal processing via plugins or built-in modules the HDR is no longer simply a more or less sophisticated record/playback device.

Last week we learned all about Soekris hardware and what you need to make it go. Today we'll hook it up and take it for a spin, and then install Pyramid Linux.

Pyramid Linux is Ubuntu-based. It's a free download from the good folks at Metrix, available either as a source tarball or image file. Installed, it occupies about 48 megabytes. Inside that scrawny little Linux are a large number of goodies:

The next version of the Palm operating system will be based on Linux, as Access attempts to keep the pioneering software alive.

Recently I wanted to make sure I had enough space to back up my home digital videos and pictures, so I purchased a new hard drive to add to my home Linux server. I moved all the files I wanted to save onto a single hard drive and repartitioned the old hard drive so I could upgrade to a newer version of Linux. After going through the process of reinstalling the operating system, I mounted the backup hard drive and discovered that it was empty. I had some how mixed up the hard drive I used to back up all the data with a hard drive that I wanted to wipe.

I've mentioned Soekris single-board computers (SBC) many a time as great choices for routers, firewalls, and wireless access points. They're small, quiet, low-power, and sturdy. So here at long last is a howto that attempts to answer your hardware questions, and then we'll get into building a sturdy firewall using Pyramid Linux.

Just a decade ago, not many people were aware of the revolution coming along their way. Ordinary people were thrilled with the new features that Microsoft Windows 95 provided and Linux was still the choice of geeks. Fast forward 10 years: Even ordinary people carry extraordinary piece of hardware with them.

If you're wondering what has happened to Ethereal, one of the most popular packet sniffing tools on the planet, it's probably because you're visiting Ethereal.com. Though development on Ethereal may be dead, development on its forked successor Wireshark is alive, well and perhaps more focused than ever before.

A friend of mine is the IT manager for a medium-sized wholesale distribution business. One afternoon in early August, a hard disk drive in one of his employer's servers started to show signs that it was dying. That hard drive contained the company's (proprietary) credit card processing software, which was chosen specifically to integrate with the company's (proprietary) inventory control and accounting software package.

Web services have been around for awhile, but the idea has yet to fully take off. Learn how that's about to change, particularly as Web services go private and mobile. Learn how the application builders of tomorrow will use simple, drag-and-drop techniques to build new applications out of existing services.

Real-time Linux and middleware from Concurrent Computer Corp. and Real-Time Innovations Inc. (RTI) are supporting the U.S. Navy's Aegis Open Architecture program, the companies announced Aug. 28. Aegis Open Architecture is the foundation for the modernization of the Navy's Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers, the companies said.

This company had been the focus of a BSA audit four months ago. It seemed that the fellow who had been taking care of his system had used a pirated copy of Windows Server 2005 and Windows XP Professional on most of the desktop units.

Last week we set up a very simple digital receptionist and installed Zgsmplay for reviewing Asterisk's GSM-formatted soundfiles. Today we're going to build a better custom recorder for creating our own custom prompts and greetings.

Philipp H. Poll started the Linux Libertine Open Fonts project in September 2003 because of his dissatisfaction with the fonts shipped with GNU/Linux distributions. "In SUSE 9.x," he recalls, "you had to use a script to download the Microsoft core fonts if you wanted to have good TrueType fonts." To improve the situation, Poll chose to start with the basics with Linux Libertine, an alternative to Time Roman and Times New Roman, the most commonly used typefaces in computing, and to develop it using free software methodologies and tools under the GNU General Public License.

The New Zealand Open Source Society(NZOSS) has claimed a moral victory in the patent office after Microsoft amended its patent on XML schema. NZOSS president Peter Harrison says the changes made to the patent were such that the organisation was no longer concerned about the threat posed by the patent.

Okay, I don't really know how many chances I've given GNOME, but I've tried to switch to GNOME as my default desktop many times. I always ended up switching back to KDE (to be fair, I use other window managers, too, such as Fluxbox, which is one of my favorites). Thanks to the rumors that Xgl/Compiz/cgwd worked best on GNOME, I gave GNOME another shot.

[I know how he feels. - Scott]

Today we're going to learn how to play Asterisk .gsm files with a special audio player, and how to construct a sturdy, reliable digital receptionist to answer and route all incoming calls.