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So you want a cell phone that's also a PDA? Smart phones can make calls, synchronize your calendar with your PC, act as data storage devices, and connect your PC to the Internet. You can use your Linux PC to connect with and even program some mobile phones using some of the following tools.

Mark Mitchell announced the availability of GCC4.1.0 saying, "this release is a major release, containing substantial new functionality relative to previous releases." Among thechanges, new features and fixes listed for this new release series are a number of general optimizer improvements, language specific improvements, and some protection from stack-smashing attacks by providing buffer overflow detection and reordering of stack variables.

GCC is the GNU Compiler Collection which includes C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada compilers. Download GCC 4.1.0 from a gcc.gnu.orgmirror.

There was a time when Microsoft ads were a bit more entertaining than the current "dinosaur head" offerings which have of late been baffling adults and scaring small children worldwide.

The proof comes in this hitherto-unseen-in-the-civilised-world shocker for MS Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003:Fantastic. For the record, an MS operative confirmed this morning that this is "an old advertisement which ran only in New Zealand for a short period and is no longer being used". For the love of all that's Holy, why not?

[ed: The ad shows a woman teacher in bed with a student. It's worth a mouse click. -tadelste]

Yahoo intermittently refused email from CraigsList. Hotmail nailed the world's largest classified advertising website to its blocklist. In response, CraigsList shut off subscription mail to them... kind of. Months later, CraigsList techs were still complaining of spasmodic delivery problems to the very services they claimed... and still claim... to have shut down. Email Battles takes a stab at sorting the whole mess out.

Dive into the new Xen release and find out what it offers for paravirtualization, split drivers and Intel's new virtualization technology.

Anti-software patent supporters are meeting on Monday to discuss the formation of a non-profit organisation to tackle the issue of software patents in South Africa. Tectonic caught up with University of South Africa senior lecturer, Bob Jolliffe, who is currently driving the process.

A Science Film built on equation solving where no instrument can return information, utilizing open source graphics (Open GL). Makes science fiction movies tame by comparison. [Free registration required to view articles - or use one of the shared access routes.]

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo has added a new "Government Day" to the upcoming conference set for April 3-6 in Boston. Scheduled for April 4th, the Government Day event will focus on the dominant issues facing public-sector decision makers in building and maintaining systems and staff, IDG said.

The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) is a research consortium made up of seven Boston-area medical institutions, including Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Its mandate is to improve the treatment and prevention of cancer by facilitating communication and promoting cross-pollination of ideas among the various consortium members. With more than 800 scientists and researchers working at disparate locations for different institutions, collaborating through DF/HCC was a challenge. To meet the challenge, the organization has developed a Web-based content management system (CMS) based on open source software.

Victoria's Department of Education and Training is continuing to develop the in-house server software it built on top of open source tools to bring its state-wide wireless network to life.

KDE developers last month elected the project's first Technical Working Group (TWG), making seven longtime contributors responsible for coordinating projects and helping to smooth decisions on the project.

Novell is claiming again that it is the Linux leader in China. This time the data comes from China-based analyst firm CCID Consulting, which reported that Novell holds a 25.1 percent revenue share of the China Linux market.

In brief No, not like that

One of the world's largest consumer electronics companies claims to have booted Linux on an ARM11 SoC (system-on-chip) built on 65-nanometer CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) process technology. Philips Electronics calls the unnamed SoC "the first truly consumer product-oriented SoC to be successfully produced in 65-nm low-power CMOS."

Maker of rBuilder, which helps developers create Linux-based software appliances, taps Dave Cotten to head sales.

Responding to a recent article in ExtremeTech entitled "Why Windows Vista Won't Suck," DesktopLinux.com columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, who's been using Vista for months, is pulling no punches: Microsoft's replacement for Windows XP is flat-out going to "suck," he retorts.

Researchers at the IBM Almaden Research Center have achieved high-quality line patterns using deep-ultraviolet 193nm optical lithography for spaced ridges 29.9nm wide, besting the 32nm industry-consensus, theoretical (until now) limit by 2.1nm (slightly wider than the diameter of a DNA helix). Dr. Allen postulates that this "high-index immersion" variant of DUV lithography might purchase about seven years of breathing room before the industry has to rewrite Moore's Law.

You may know how to use SQL to extract data from a table in a MySQL database, and how to run a query that combines data from more than one table. But what about multiple databases? Or even multiple databases on multiple servers?

The Risks Digest is an interesting read about the risks of using computers in the world of today.

Google is offering free Web pages with an easy-to-use home page creator that you don't have to download, and you can use the utility even from a Linux desktop if you use Firefox. The company released Google Page Creator last week as a Google Labs project. That means you won't find it on the main directory of services because it's in an early stage of beta testing. If you're willing to be a Google guinea pig, you'll find the service functional, if limited in scope, and easy enough for a beginner to use.