Showing all newswire headlines

Network processor vendor Cavium Networks and its hardware and software partners will offer product demonstrations at the RSA Conference on computing security next week in San Jose. Demonstrations include MontaVista's Linux Pro 4.0 and Intoto's IGateway communications platform running on multi-way Octeon processors from Cavium.

The telcos have been making threatening noises about Net traffic passing through their lines. Despite rumors to the contary, Google says they aren't negotiating with the telcos. This has been rumbling around the Net for a couple of months. Recently Verizon announced their intent to prevent the proposed "network neutrality" which currently prevails. So far, it's been voluntary, but Congress appears set to consider codifying it in legislation. Verizon and friends are fighting to charge for Net access at both ends. A quick reading is all it takes to realize this is no more than Google envy. As one wag said somewhere, if it were really about bandwidth, they'd be going after iTunes, streaming video and other serious bandwidth hogs. Instead, they are going after a service which sends little more than text and a few tiny images, but happens to make millions doing it. This is transparently petty envy. Perhaps the telcos need to revisit their economics classes.

Embedded RTOS and Linux vendor LynuxWorks highlighted the importance of open standards and open source software, off-the-shelf OSes, and reusable software, at an invitation-only media event last week. It announced two security-oriented OS products, and tipped plans to diversify its customer base by leveraging military/aerospace products in the commercial sector.

The good news is that the long-awaited new version of MEPIS's flagship Linux distribution, SimplyMEPIS 3.4-3 has finally arrived. The curious news is that MEPIS founder Warren Woodford is considering building future MEPIS releases from Ubuntu rather than from Debian sources.

Ramblings of a Linux enthusiast dissecting the pros and cons of integrating XGL in Linux.

The Mozilla Foundation has confirmed that Platypus is, in fact, a finalist in the Extend Firefox competition, following a query by Tectonic. This is jolly good news, since it ranks high as a truly novel extension.

After years of struggling to contain a growing plague of spam and its antecedents, like phishing and 419 scams, AOL and Yahoo have fallen back to the Bill Gates playbook: Charge for it. In all fairness, Gates stole the idea from the US Post Office, which profitably elevated advertising missives from "junkmail" to "Standard Mail A." It's simply a matter of perspective.

Last week's news that IBM is releasing a free version of its DB2 database software might be good news for system administrators seeking a low-cost (as in, no-cost) back-end server platform. But could the latest commercial database platform to go freebie be a bad omen for open source databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL?

Building secure software doesn't have to be complicated; it just takes a commitment to secure design, and an upfront willingness to work within the unique development environment that is open source.

A San Francisco start-up released an early test version of its open source Songbird music software on Wednesday, with which it ultimately hopes to undermine the dominance of Apple's iTunes. Pioneers of the Inevitable is hoping to create "the Firefox of MP3".

In this final installment of the old C hacker's foray into Python, he teaches his problem-solving program how to guess.

I run two servers that host a couple of Web sites for customers, including two wikis and a forum, and ordinary static HTML sites. The wikis, the photo gallery, and the phpBB forum are especially important to keep an eye on. The maintenance of the Web server and the mail server is a one-man show, so I have to watch them all the time and try to automate whatever is possible. My toolbox includes Mutt, rss2email, Midnight Commander, and more.

Use computer technology such as the Internet, VPNs, USB-keys, sneaker-netting, live CDs, and so forth to help to reduce dependency on oil and to reduce air pollution. MozillaQuest Magazine (mozillaquest.com) reports: “Today, in 'Part 2' of this 'Solutions for the Energy Crises' . . . article, we look at telecommuting as an alternative to burning gas and diesel fuel. We also look at some of the computer tools that help people to do these things. . . . If one's work is done on a computer, that person is a perfect candidate for working from home -- telecommuting"

This article shares some practical (and potentially very popular) uses for mobile video, and then present two programs to get you started using the QuickTime for Java API to create video content for the iPod. These programs let you easily add captions to existing video files and convert legacy video files into an iPod-compatible format.

WordPress 2.0 is a great piece of blogging software, but it doesn't build in every function a blogger might want. However, you can use plugins to extend the functionality of WordPress far beyond what it can do out of the box.

Microsoft warned users Thursday that they needed to set aside time on Tuesday, Feb. 14, to deploy seven security bulletins, the most the Redmond, Wash.-based developer has released since October 2005.

Following the well-received article on Mono, MonoDevelop and Glade, I decided to have a closer look at this mysterious beast and see if I couldn't get it to do something a little more useful. So I hooked it up to everyone's other favourite database, MySql, and knocked out a little database browser. Here's how I did it.

SGI issued its most ominous regulatory filing to date, warning that a bad 2006 could force the former high-flyer into bankruptcy.

SCO's attempts to discover evidence in its case against IBM and its possible placement of Unix code in Linux have not come to an end.

Open source voice over IP application gets tonal overhaul with the release of a package of voice prompts recorded in a South African accent. Push 1 to download, push 2 to erase Canadian accent!