W.I.L. Tech-News Highlights for June 2006

Operating Systems

Installing operating systems the safe way – link.

Building a heterogeneous home network for Linux and Mac OS X – link.

How to use VMware Player to create your own OS images – link.

Virtual vs. VMware – link.

Convert a Windows executable to a MacOS X, Linux binary? – link.

Linux

Jon “maddog” Hall on FOSS in the developing world – link.

What happened to GNU/Linux evangelism? (The decline certainly is not because fewer people are interested in it) – link.

The State of Linux 2006 – link.

Linux desktop distributions headed in the wrong direction? – link.

Help for Linux newcomers

Switching from MacOS to Linux – link.

Switching back to desktop Linux – link.

CCux Linux is a performance-oriented distribution that is also friendly to novice Linux users – review.

Multi Distro includes nine live CD Linux distributions in one ISO file that you can burn to a single disc. By showing you how to make your own live CD composed of multiple live CD distros, Multi Distro packs a big punch – link.

Linux desktop distributions headed in the wrong direction – link.

Dynebolic is a live CD distro packed with tools for working with sound and video files – link.

OSvids.com is a new site that provides video views of dozens of distributions, giving potential Linux users a glimpse of open source desktops in action – link.

How to keep users from messing up their desktops – link.

KDE 3.5.3 update edges KDE closer to v4.0 – link. KDE team offers glimpses of KDE 4.0, KOffice 2.0 – link. KDE 4 Multimedia Meeting exceeds expectations – link.

Linux.com’s “CLI Series” latest – ext2hide veils sensitive files, Is that CD still fresh?, A new tool for Formula 1 fans, EncFS for storing information in encrypted form. Series index here.

Different Linux sysadmins’ toolboxes – link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5.

Linux kernel 2.6.17 released – link.

Mobile Linux forum is force to be reckoned with – link.

Windows Vista troubles an opportunity for Linux to ascend – link.

BSDs, other Unixes

PC-BSD 2.0 roadmap – link. PC-BSD 1.11 released – link.

Comparison of BSD Live CDs – link.

nVidia FreeBSD kernel feature requests – link.

Solaris vs. Linux – link.

Another small UNIX clone written in C++ – link.

Windows & DOS, Mac

Uniblue Registry Booster is a shareware that allows you to clean up the Windows Registry, back it up before changes are made, and defragment the Registry – review.

Microsoft throws Windows 98 users to the wolves – link. Discussion here.

Why Vista is late – link. Windows Vista2 Preview tested – link.

The sudoWn project can execute individual programs (or even a whole Windows shell) with temporary Administrator privileges under your user profile – link.

“23 things we want in [Mac OS X 10.5] Leopard” – link.

Other OS’s

Four alternative operating systems – link.

Zeta has all the power it needs to be the writer’s primary OS – link.

Amiga Forever 2006 released – link.

AROS update – link.

New version of Plan 9 released – link.

Syllable moves to GCC 4 – link. Syllable gets NTFS driver – link.

SkyOS PE to ELF translation nearing completion – link.

Open source Palm OS clone in the works – link.

Applications

Discovering your network with Netdisco – link.

Polypaudio, a networked sound server – link.

Databases

The Art of SQL is a excellent way to improve the way you attack problems in database and query design – book review.

Consortium brings open source database projects together – link.

Glom is a GNOME application that provides a graphical front end to PostgreSQL database creation and maintenance – link.

Migrate from MySQL or PostgreSQL to DB2 Express-C – link.

Using Excel to analyze MySQL data – link.

Internet applications

Opera 9, the first web browser to include a BitTorrent search-and-download function straight out of the box, is out – link.

Opera 9 reviewed by eWEEK, and given a Labs Analyst’s Choice award – link. Opera 9 is really good – review.

Coders who prefer the SeaMonkey web browser/mail/chat/HTML-editor suite, have managed to install Firefox extensions, including the popular GreaseMonkey scripting engine, into their beloved Mozilla reincarnation – link.

Firefox Bon Echo Alpha 3 milestone released – link. Mozilla fixes 13 Firefox vulnerabilities – link.

Flock is a “social browser” built on the Firefox code base, which integrates blogging, photo sharing, “favorites” (a.k.a. bookmarks), and other collaborative features. Take it for a test drive – link.

Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 flies forth – link.

Reading RSS and Atom feeds efficiently with Akregator – link.

Office applications

If you really want a free and good replacement for Microsoft Office, you should be looking to OpenOffice.org, not Google – link.

OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 released – link.

KOffice 2.0, the vision – link 1, link 2.

The emerging Open Document Environment: spotlight on StarOffice 8.0 – link.

Google Spreadsheets and the usefulness of online applications – link.

Office 2007 upgrade hard to justify, warns analyst – link.

Desktop-oriented applications

Xara Xtreme LX, the port of Xara Xtreme to Linux, release beta v0.5. Although tantalizing, without many of the as-yet unimplemented features the final version of the program threatens to be crippled, neither attracting professional graphic designers to Linux nor offering home users anything except an alternative to Inkscape. With these features, or replacements of comparable quality, Xara LX promises to be the most important gift from the proprietary world to free software since OpenOffice.org – link.

Free Software vector graphics editor Inkscape is coming along very fast – review.

Adobe releases Flash Player 9 which incorporates support for ActionScript 3 and the Flex 2. The new player has two Virtual Machines, one which can play old content and one specifically for new Flash 9 AS3 based content – link. Download here.

ASCII art fun with boxes – link.

The end of the JPEG patent (sort of) – link.

Learn foreign languages with open source software – link.

Programming

Borland developer group to get new owner soon – link.

15 exercises to know a programming language – link. 15 exercises for learning a new programming language – link.

Learn object-oriented analysis with generative analysis – link.

How to stay on top of programming trends? – link.

Good list of “programming fonts” – link.

Vim tips – Using Vim mappings and abbreviations. Making Vim more user friendly using Cream – link.

Some criticisms of PHP and MySQL – link.

Graphical user interface, Web

Tutorials on HTML and CSS – link.

Introduction to developing Web applications with AJAX – Part 1, Part 2.

Head Rush Ajax is a failure in the “Head First” series, although many people can still derive some benefit from it – book review.

Interviewing Web developers: 20 good questions to ask – link.

Use functional programming techniques to write elegant JavaScript – link.

Pyxy-gallery is an image gallery in PHP and JavaScript, designed to be an ultra-lightweight, “drop-in” image gallery – link. Other image galleries include Zen Photo, ThumbHTML, AJAX Gallery

OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for developing user friendly web based applications – link.

Allow users to increase/decrease text size using CSS and simple Javascript – link.

C/C++/Java family

Head First Java, 2nd Edition may be fun to read and follow, but it is unlikely to produce a competent programmer on its own – book review.

Scripting and high-level languages

PHPEclipse: A user guide published – link.

phpBB: A User Guide is a UG for phpBB, a free, open source Internet community application, with outstanding discussion forums and membership management – link.

Django is an open-source model-view-controller (MVC)-style Web application framework powered by the Python programming language that enables you to create high-quality, easy-to-maintain, database-driven Web applications in minutes – Part 1.

Shed Skin is an experimental Python-to-C++ compiler – link.

An extensive Ruby on Rails roundup of resources, projects, books, links, hosts and more. – link.

A comprehensive guide to finding, creating and using Ruby resources called gems – link.

The compromises and design decisions that went into making Ruby on Rails so productive within its niche – link.

Tcl the Misunderstood – link.

Use Tcl/Tk to organize your desktop and make your work easier – link.

Security & Privacy

The University of Advancing Technology in Phoenix, Arizona, is marketing its new Network Security program as a way to get a degree in hacking – link.

Applicants to the University of Abertay’s Ethical Hacking course will be subject to stringent background checks before being offered a place – link.

Creating virtual private networks with tsocks and VTun – link.

Accelerating OpenSSH connections with ControlMaster – link.

Australian High Tech Crime Center cop loses memory stick with personal and banking details of some 3500 customers from 18 different banks – link.

Holes, patches, defenses

Can the malware industry be trusted? (No!) – link.

Unauthorized applications bigger threat than malware in corporate IT systems – link.

SQL injection vulnerabilities in PostgreSQL – link.

Macro virus for Staroffice discovered – link. OpenOffice.org virus debunked by experts – link.

Freenode IRC Network hacked – link.

Miscellaneous

Behavioral standards in the free software community – link.

The continuing American decline in computer science – link.

The UK Parliament on DRM – link.

Business

Mark Cuban has devious plan for world domination – link.

Bill Gates becomes a higher power – link.

Google readies PayPal-killer – link.

The number of YouTube-like Web video services now stands at a staggering 173, and in April alone 3 outfits got $30 million in funding. Who will survive? – link.

Symantec’s trade secret lawsuit against Microsoft is a sign of heightened competition between the two companies, but is not a declaration of war, say analysts – link.

Who’s afraid of (patent accumulator) Nathan Myhrvold? – link.

The Internet

Discover Internet Protocol, version 6 (IPv6) – link.

IPv6 still gets no respect in the U.S. – link.

Tim Berners-Lee on Net neutrality: “This is serious” – link.

U.S. Senate deals blow to Net neutrality – link.

Telecommunications

Intel enables VoIP on typical phones with PCI phone adapter – link.

Consumers to flock to VoIP – link.

Qualcomm considers radical action as pressure mounts – link.

FCC increases fees on Internet, cell calls – link.