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IPC is one of the most important features of the UNIX systems. It allows two processes to communicate with each other. In this article we'll work with two System V IPC functions, semaphores and shared memory. System V IPC originated in SVR2, but has implementations by numerous vendors. It's also available in SVR4. This article introduces shared memory and synchronization (semaphores).

Start-up Black Duck Software next week will introduce two new products designed to help companies better manage their use of open-source...protexIP/Development software, a management tool for companies that develop with open-source software that allows managers to see which, if any, of their developers' software contributions contain open-source code, and provides an audit trail that tracks individual technical contributions.

A new interview has appeared on the KDE::Enterprise website. In this interview Walter Stolk tells us why International Hout has chosen to use KDE within their organisation.

In this third article on Bayesian inference, Paul Meagher examines how to use PHP and Bayes methods to solve classification problems in medical diagnostic testing and Web survey analysis. Learn how Bayesian and conditional probability concepts are applicable to both building classifier systems and analyzing the accuracy of their output.

While the first article in this series discussed building intelligent Web applications through conditional probability, this Bayesian inference article examines how you can use Bayes methods to solve parameter estimation problems. Relevant concepts are explained in the context of Web survey analysis using PHP and JPGraph.

As Linux PDAs and cell phones make their way into consumer and enterprise gadgets, an embedded version of the operating system has been developed for use as a public safety communications platform.

Microsoft Corp's flirtation with open source has seen the company release C++ product code to the community for developers to pick-up and modify.

Open source presents a large potential competitive advantage for hardware and software vendors, and vendors of complementary or substitute services. Linux has contributed greatly to the adoption and success of OSS. Companies such as IBM, HP, Red Hat, Oracle, and recently, Novell, have invested in, and legitimized the use of Linux for enterprise applications -- including datacenter operations.

Linux and open source seem to have energized Novell's user and partner community and may give Novell a chance to undo its most fundamental error vis-a-vis Microsoft--misjudging the importance of integration of its services with a capable application server and not having tight integration with the enterprise desktop.

Europe plans direct patentability of computer programs, data structures and process descriptions.

In this issue, we cover special features: statements from the Fedora Project Leader, Cristian Gafton, as well as the Fedora Legacy Project Lead, Jesse Keating. Fedora Core 2 Test 3 has been released, notes for it accompany, along with tips on getting dual-head video as well as webcams that work well with Fedora. There are plenty more updates, with regards to documents, new scripts, and ideas to tame the lists.

Zend Technologies is completing its expanded third financing round, with a $4 million investment from a leading US West Coast venture capital fund. When the agreement is signed, expected in a few days, Zend will close the $10 million financing round. Zend had set itself a target of $8 million for the round. Including the present round, Zend will have raised $16 million to date.

Many companies have come to favor specialized measurable education for both their employees and those they look to hire, as witness the large number of "certified" acronyms nowadays -- CCNA, MCSE, RHCE, SCSE, LPIC, ICSA. A few years ago, you couldn't find a Linux certification program anywhere. Today, with Linux showing up all over the enterprise, training and certification programs are showing up as well. In fact, three of the six acronyms above refer to Linux certifications, not the Cisco or Microsoft certifications we're used to hearing about.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Nigeria in association with Novell Africa is organizing a one-day Linux road-show in Lagos. The road-show is to further create awareness on the use and deployment of Suse Linux by the Information Technology (IT) community in the country. This is another step in strengthening the relationship between the two firms, especially in expanding and offering Linux from the desktop to the datacenter.

The 2.6.6 release, however, is noteworthy on several fronts beyond the usual "kernel speedups and fixups," as Morton said. The kernel's stability continues to improve as it inches closer to its initial promise of enterprise-class scalability and memory management.

Toting "DB2 on Linux" hats and green DB2 bumper stickers featuring the friendly Linux penguin logo, IBM is sending a message to DBAs that the database of choice for establishing clusters on the open source platform is DB2 -- and not products from its nemesis, Oracle Corp.

Last week I attended the International PHP Conference in Amsterdam. There was a small exhibition, but the main attraction was the large number of lectures by well-known PHP gurus. The first day was reserved for two whole-day "Power Workshops," where the audience got an elaborate introduction to either PEAR or XML processing in PHP 5. During the last two days there were almost 30 shorter sessions about various topics.