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Look for Microsoft's lobbying againsts MassGov's OpenDocument file format decision to reach an absurd, even Kafka-esque, pitch throughout the rest of this year.

For the past two years, the industry has inundated you with messages that you've reached a new plateau in high-speed connectivity. Around 25 percent of the world's computer users now have at least a cable modem or DSL connection; of course, this implies that speed is no longer an issue. And, as such, throwing huge images or Flash movies on to a Web site is now fine! I mean, if everyone has all this bandwidth, why not use it?

Oracle's OpenWorld conference in San Francisco is winding down, and the fifth richest American took some questions from the 35,000 assembled for the gathering. InformationWeek reported that future applications developed for Project Fusion could be certified with IBM's DB2. Microsoft's SQL Server would be a candidate as well, but not open-source favorites like MySQL or PostGreSQL. "It's a nontrivial process to supply certification…. IBM is much better equipped to go through it. I'm not sure I can say that for these other databases," he said to InformationWeek.

This week, advisories were released for turqstat, centericq, lm-sensors, kdebase, python, XFree86, Mailutils, Shorewall, mozilla, mod_ssl, clam, mod_ssl, Zebedee, umount, squid, and mod_ssl. The distributors include Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, and Red Hat.

The recent court decision on Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net (also reported by Slashdot) does not deal a death blow to reverse engineering by any means. But it resembles the June ruling on Grokster in that it weakens an important right of technologists. Just as the Grokster case made it harder to develop technologies that carry audio, video, etc., without directly outlawing those technologies, so the Blizzard case insidiously eats away at the right to do reverse engineering, without directly attacking the legal foundation that protects reverse engineering. So this case marks not, perhaps, a major precendent, but another inch-long drift of the continental shelf in American law toward making established companies harder to challenge, and making both competition and innovation less likely.

After seeing the same mistakes repeated by different IT managers over the years, I've noticed a pattern of common errors. Here are the five common mistakes, along with tips for avoiding them.

Code has been published that exploits one of the flaws patched in the latest Firefox and Mozilla suite releases

The Linux Mark Institute, set up by Linus Torvalds in 2002 to protect the Linux trademark, has denied reports that it has "failed" to register the Linux trademark in Australia and clarified its position on Linux trademark licensing.

The generally accepted path for introducing new code into the 2.6 Linux kernel is to first have it merged into Andrew Morton [interview]'s -mm kernel, and then after sufficient testing to have it merged into Linus Torvald's mainline kernel. In a recent thread on thelkml, this process was briefly discussed. Linus noted, "one issue is that I actually worry that Andrew will at some point be where I was a couple of years ago - overworked and stressed out by just tons and tons of patches." He went on to acknowledge that Andrew has written and enhanced numerous patch tracking tools, and that git merging helps, "but it still worries me," Linus said. "If Andrew burns out, we'll all suffer hugely."

Andrew replied, "I'm doin OK." He went on to explain, "patch volume isn't a problem [with regards to] the simple mechanics of handling them. The problem we have at present is lack of patch reviewing bandwidth. I'll be tightening things up in that area. Relatively few developers seem to have the stomach to do a line-by-line through large patches, and it would be nice to refocus people a bit on that. Christoph's work is hugely appreciated, thanks." He also suggested that the number of major features lined up for the kernel have been slowing down, hinting that some day the kernel will be a completed project, "as I said, famous last words. But we have to finish this thing one day ;)"

Computer Associates International, Inc. today pledged open access to key innovations covered by 14 of its U.S. patents and counterparts of these patents issued in other countries for individuals and groups working on open source software. CA also announced it has reached a long-term, patent cross license agreement with IBM, creating an exchange of license rights and releases between the companies.

Halcyon’s inventive ‘intelligent monitoring’ tool now supports a number of platforms. As Network Server Suite continues to evolve it takes Halcyon to a new level in the Enterprise Management Market.

This chapter covers the following requirements for Novell's Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) 9 certification: 1. Configure a DNS server using BIND. On a modern IP-based network, users take for granted the fact that they can access local network and Internet resources using easy-to-remember domain names instead of IP addresses. I doubt that a single work day goes by that the typical employee doesn't access some website with a URL that uses a domain name, such as http://www.novell.com. As a Linux system administrator, it's your job to know how to provide users with this functionality. In this chapter, we're going to do just that. We're going to discuss how to implement domain name service (DNS) on your SLES 9 server.

SUSE Linux 10.0 is designed to pull computer users from the Microsoft Windows operating system to . . . Linux.

At the WSA Investment Forum earlier this week, Frank Catalano joked that he had discovered at least one way to make money in the burgeoning open source movement.

The newly revamped Linux Standards Base has got three new supporters this week

A cry from a fellow composer arrived yesterday asking how to quickly adjust the gain level for over 10,000 audio files. Designers from all over recommended the usual applications — Peak, SoundForge, Waves, Barbabatch, Wavelab — as help to his predicament. Fine recommendations, but this is a perfect job for Linux. A simple script, the bash shell and free Linux audio applications can fix him up nicely. (Those who don't have a spare PC quit belly-aching. Linux doesn't require the horsepower that Windows craves, so retrieve that old clunker you tossed last year and see my article Resurrect Your Old PC for Music—with Linux for the cost of a blank CD.)

Unable to patiently await the final release date, Tectonic Magazine takes Ubuntu's Breezy preview edition for a spin.

Bring it on! And the toolbar out of beta after only two months! Maybe there's hope Google News will graduate yet from beta. It's four years old this March.

The Auditor security collection is a GPL-licensed live CD based on Knoppix, with more than 300 security software tools. Auditor gives you easy access to a broad range of tools in almost no time.