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•   The latest content from IBM developerWorks

Source: DistroWatch.com: News

The fourth beta of openSUSE 11.1 is out and ready for testing: "Hot on the heels of openSUSE 11.1 beta 3, the openSUSE project is happy to announce the availability of openSUSE 11.1 beta 4. This release includes a number of important bug fixes since the last beta, .

Source: Linux Today

17lamp: "Some Ubuntu Fans arranged one meetup to spread the new Ubuntu 8.10 in QinDao University of China.
They setup many laptop with the new Ubuntu 8.10 Linux distribution."

Source: Linux Today

En plein dedan: "You've always dreamt of making panoramas of your holidays pictures. You've never done it cause you've never found the good software into Ubuntu or it was too complicated to set up? Me too. Until recently and the discovery of Hugin."

Source: Linux Today

Linux Journal: "Once upon a time, one computer was all you needed. All of your documents lived on that computer, or a stack of floppies or CD-Roms nearby, and nowhere else. Those days are gone, much like the one-car, one-TV, and one-iPod days."

Source: Linux Today

The Register: "If you made the leap to Ubuntu 8.10 when it was released last week you may be scratching your head wondering what the fuss is about. The answer is that it might be a few days before you appreciate the small tweaks and overall streamlining in this release. Naturally, there are a slew of new and updated packages - GNOME 2.24, GIMP 2.6, and more - but much of what we love about 8.10 is more subtle."

Source: Linux Today

LinuxPlanet: "A. Lizard's in-depth howto on setting up secure remote graphical desktops continues with configuring secure Internet access: managing dynamic IP addresses, creating and managing SSH keys, configuring routers, and using Wake-on-LAN for added convenience."

Source: Linux Today

HowtoForge: "In this tutorial, I will guide you through the necessary steps to install ipw3945 wireless adapter on a CentOS / RHEL based distribution.It is written for CentOS 5.2. However, it might work on other CentOS 5.x based distributions as well."

Source: Linux Today

WebReference: "Many websites will want to control who has access to what. Once embarked on this route, it turns out there are many situations where access control is appropriate, and they can easily become very complex. So in this chapter we look at the most highly regarded model--role-based access control--and find ways to implement it."

Source: Linux Today

Linux.com: "The award was only the latest acclaim for Fl_TeacherTool, which has a small but dedicated group of users in the classroom. Ironically, though, the award comes at a time when the tiny project faces significant challenges if it is to survive."

Source: Linux Today

LiveSmarter: "Open source tools are free, highly customizable, and secure enough to handle the sensitive data that medical professionals often work with. Read below for our list of the top 100 open source software tools that benefit health care professionals."

Source: Linux Today

The Linux and Unix Menagerie: " This week's script is an update to include cable and dish TV as well as provide greater coverage of your personal provider's schedule. The next paragraph is another litany of "other scripts we've done before that somewhat resemble this one."

Source: Linux Today

Intranet Journal: "OpenOffice has hit version 3, and the free alternative to Microsoft Office and other commercial office suites is looking more professional and fully featured than ever before.
The suite counts a user base of over 100 million users, and has had over 160 million downloads since it began, according to community manager Louis Suarez-Potts."

Source: Linux Today

Small Business Computing: "Years ago, multifunction printer/scanner/copier/fax machines weren't particularly great at any one task. But technology has improved, and buying an MFP is no longer a compromise. The monochrome Xerox Phaser 3300MFP ($599) offers the usual multifunction features plus flexible connectivity to network and USB storage, and a high-speed print engine suitable for small and medium businesses with higher productivity demands."

Source: Linux Today

Phoronix: "It's no secret that much of the code-base that makes up the modern-day X.Org Server is old and in some places bloated. The X.Org Server continues to evolve and has received a number of major additions in recent times, but wouldn't a clean and lighter server that is designed around today's needs be ideal?"

Source: Linux Today

Datamation: "Netbooks usually come with one of two main operating systems. Unlike more expensive mainstream and ultralight notebooks, which typically offer either Windows Vista or Mac OS X as their primary operating system, netbooks tend to sport either Linux or Windows XP--mainly due to their lower CPU and power requirements."

Source: Linux Today

Linux Magazine: "A whole week of success stories for Linux and Open Source, while Microsoft is battling the press, thus the summary from Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. Even the New York Times sees a good positioning for Linux on desktops."

Source: Linux Today

Help Desk: "No, the thin client is based on client/server technology. This technology is based on the cloud."

Source: Linux Today

Linux.com: "Ever wondered what takes your Linux box so long to boot up? You can see for certain with the Bootchart package. Bootchart logs the entire startup process and produces a clean, graphical representation of its results suitable for everything from troubleshooting to good old-fashioned bragging rights."

Source: Linux Today

LinuxInsider: "Debate raged on the Linux blogs after the Free Software Foundation published its list of free software the world needs. Commenters offered their suggestions and several went so far as to paint RMS and friends as out of touch with reality."

Source: Linux Today

OStatic: "Although there are signs that the very early popularity of this browser has calmed down somewhat, it's still generating a lot of buzz here are seven tips for customizing and getting the most out of it."

Source: Linux Today

Blog of Helios: "So tell me Dell is a friend of Linux or that they are not complete quislings for the Redmond Empire. Oh please I do so want to hear you tell me this. It will be an Academy Award performance. It will have to be to explain away this."

Source: Linux Today

New York Times: "The concept of open source software seems so firmly entrenched in higher education that it comes as almost a shock to realize there's actually a debate over it. But debate there was, civilized and trenchant, this week during the annual Educause conference on high technology in higher education in Orlando, Fla."

Source: Linux Today

Linux Gazette: "This article is based on a network driver for the RealTek 8139 network card. I chose the RealTek chip for two reasons: First, RealTek provides technical specifications for its chips free of cost. (Thanks, RealTek!) Second; it's quite cheap. It is possible to get the chip under Rs 300 (approximately US$7) in Indian markets."

Source: Linux Today

wolfgang.lonien.de: "He had some problems installing Ubuntu on our aunt's computer, and asked for help. In the end, it was a success story. But it’s a quite lengthy one; it actually started years ago."

Source: Linux Today

TorrentFreak: "Unfortunately, for the customers of the UK ISP Karoo, running open WiFi might also get them disconnected - even if it's unintentional."

Source: Linux Today

IT Wire: "Ubuntu fans rejoice, the latest release is upon us in the form of version 8.10, Intrepid Ibex. But can't you just run a software update in Hardy Heron? I'll tell you what's different down to the package level between an upgraded Hardy installation and a fresh Intrepid installation so you can evaluate for yourself."

Source: Linux Today

Matthew Garrett: "I wrote about Automatix some time ago. It died and the world became a better place. More recently it's been resurrected as something called Ultamatix. In summary, don't bother. It's crap. And dangerous. But mostly crap."

Source: Linux Today

TechRadar: "Have you been clinging to KDE 3.5 like a polar bear to the last Arctic ice shelf?

If so, now's a good time to consider jumping on to the mainland."

Source: Linux Today

LinuxLinks: "This article focuses on selecting the best software which enables a Linux machine to emulate classic video consoles, such as the GameBoy, Nintendo 64, Megadrive, PlayStation 1 & 2, and many others. Please be aware that although all of the software featured in this article is free to download, some of the emulators are not open source."

Source: Linux Today

Linux Journal: "I have decided to let the geeks out there solve a problem for me. The problem is writing a quick and dirty solution to a temporary problem. I have an idea but I am interested to see what others have to say."

Source: Linux Today

Information Week: "As of last Saturday, the infamous Linux Hater's Blog has signed off. Seekers of curmudgeonly wisdom about Linux cleverly disguised as flaming bile will have to look elsewhere. And, strangely enough, I already miss him."

Source: Linux Today

Wi-Fi Planet: "Its lead product, "The Bullet", a carrier-class, weather-proof, radio system covering the 2.4GHz and 5GHz worldwide unlicensed bands, starts at just $39 making it an affordable solution, not just for professional installers, but for home Wi-Fi enthusiasts looking for more range on their WLANs, as well."

Source: Slashdot: Linux

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix has a new article out on Wayland: A New X Server For Linux. One of Red Hat's engineers has started writing a new X11 server around today's needs and to eliminate the cruft that has been in this critical piece of free software for more than a decade. This new server is called Wayland and it is designed with newer hardware features like kernel mode-setting and a kernel memory manager for graphics. Wayland is also dramatically simpler to target for in development. A compositing manager is embedded into the Wayland server and ensures 'every frame is perfect' according to the project's leader."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot: Linux

bmsleight writes "The Dutch Ministry of Finance organized an architecture competition to design not a building, but rather the new 5-Euro commemorative coin. The theme was 'Netherlands and Architecture'. The winning design was made 100% with free software, mainly Python, but also including The Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch, and Ubuntu. The design is amazing — the head of Queen Beatrix is made up of the names of architects based on their popularity in Yahoo searches (rendered in a font of the artist's own devising). In the end the artist, Stani Michiels, had to collaborate closely on location with technicians of the Royal Dutch Mint, so all the last bits were done on his Asus Eee PC. Soon, 350,000 Dutch people will use and enjoy the fruits of free software."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: ONLamp.com

The struct module includes functions for converting between strings of bytes and native Python data types such as numbers and strings. Here's how to use it.

Source: Security DevCenter

Search Engine Optimization for Flash dispels the myth that Flash-based websites won't show up in a web search by demonstrating exactly what you can do to make your site fully searchable. You'll learn a series of best practices for using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as SWFObject, for building sites with Flash that will stand tall in search rankings.

Source: Security DevCenter

This is a free live event. Scheduled for approximately 90 minutes. Facebook is taking the world by storm! With more than 100 million connected users and an open platform that allows developers to have full access to those users, you now have one of the most powerful opportunities ever to put your web app in front of thousands, even millions in little time. In this free, jam-packed session, Jesse Stay, the "Social" Geek, and Author of O'Reilly's FBML Essentials will cover the very basics you need to get started in the Facebook platform for developers. In this session you'll learn how your apps talk to Facebook, how Facebook talks back, where to find the information you need, viral integration points to promote your app, and learn the very basics of creating a fully functional Facebook application. Come and listen in and bring your questions as Jesse presents this valuable topic towards getting your web apps recognized through the great tools Facebook provides. About Jesse Stay Jesse Stay, The "Social" Geek, has consulted for some of the top ten applications on Facebook. Within just two months, he successfully sold his first Facebook application that he wrote in just a week. He is the author of "I'm on Facebook -- Now What???," a book targeted towards helping individuals, professionals, and business owners better manage their lives and careers through Facebook, as well as O'Reilly's FBML Essentials, a book on Facebook development. Jesse blogs at staynalive.com (featured on many of the top 100 blogs on the internet), and guest blogs regularly on top blogs louisgray.com and insidefacebook.com. Jesse also speaks regularly at various conferences and community events about Social Media technology, blogging, and the internet. You can follow him on Twitter, or on FriendFeed.

Source: Security DevCenter

This is a free live event. Scheduled for approximately 90 minutes. Publishers who dismiss the use of print-on-demand technologies as too expensive may be missing an opportunity to better manage their inventory, total costs and the unit costs of books sold. This session will provide an economic rationale for more extensive use of POD services, based upon analysis and real-world use cases. About Brian O'Leary A publishing veteran with 25 years of consulting, management and operational experience, Mr. O'Leary is founder and principal of Magellan Consulting Partners, whose clients include major media firms as well as smaller and not-for-profit entities with significant publishing and media commitments. The firm's practice areas include operational improvement, revenue development, market analysis and business planning. Work done by the firm most often results in both immediate and mid-term changes in processes, structures and in some cases technologies used to produce client content. For Magellan clients, Mr. O'Leary has also written several business plans to guide start-up and growth opportunities. Prior to starting Magellan Media, Mr. O'Leary served as senior VP and associate publisher with Hammond Inc., an internationally recognized geographic reference publisher. Responsible for editorial content, database development, production and operations, Mr. O'Leary restructured editorial operations to benefit from the firm's prior technology investments. He also substantially increased the pace of the company's new-product development efforts. Before Hammond, Mr. O'Leary directed operations at several of Time Inc.'s weekly magazines and was part of the team that launched Entertainment Weekly. He joined the firm in 1983, after earning an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. O'Leary also holds an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College. About TOC Driven by the Internet, technology is fundamentally transforming publishing. Creation, development, production, distribution, and consumption have all been touched by the changes and challenges that have accompanied the greatest shifts in publishing since the printing press. Which technologies are important? Which provide exciting business opportunities? And what are the strategic questions you need to consider in adopting new models? O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing division seeks to connect the people, companies, and organizations asking and answering the questions that will define the future of publishing. (TOC is a nod to the term publishing vets will recognize as referring to the Table of Contents of a book -- a deliberate choice signaling our intent to set the agenda for the future of publishing.)

Source: Security DevCenter

I want to persuade you of the real possibility and high probability that, in the very near future, remote entities will be able target people's on-line presence to capture and leverage their emotional states and feelings. There are some very extreme implications of this from a security and privacy perspective .

Source: Security DevCenter

Have you voted? Are you having problems voting? Are the lines at your polling station short or long? Let your fellow voters know via Twitter Vote Report. The site will aggregate all tagged tweets (use #votereport) and share the results publicly. The tweets are being analyzed and displayed on maps. Waiting times are also being plotted and analyzed. You

Source: Security DevCenter

A number of people have responded to my endorsement of Barack Obama with complaints that it is inappropriate for a tech publisher to publish on political issues. While most of the people responding to the post have either been supportive, or thoughtfully countered one or more of my arguments, a number of people have threatened to stop buying from O'Reilly

Source: Security DevCenter

Ready to jump into digital photography? Bestselling author David Pogue provides a no-nonsense guide to the entire process. With David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual, you'll learn how to: buy and use a digital camera; get the same photographic effects as the pros; manage the results on your Mac or PC; edit photos; and, finally, share the results with your adoring fans.

Source: Security DevCenter

Author Dan Chak (Enterprise Rails) will be presenting "Data modeling versus object modeling in Rails".

Source: Security DevCenter

Jedi apprentice Federico Biancuzzi contacted the Council and interviewed
27 Master Developers to talk about how they liberated
OpenBSD 4.4 from the Empire.
Details on the operation are not completely disclosed yet, but you can
already see a picture of the Uniform,
of the team Team,
and of the elite PuffySet

Source: Security DevCenter

If you're running a small business or thinking about starting one in today's brutal economic climate, a special report put together by Forbes.com can help you make the right decisions about technology. The package includes five stories illuminating everything from "hardware and networking to executing and securing transactions in cyberspace." Each story includes a glossary of terms put together by a team of O'Reilly editors: Shane Warden, Kurt Cagle, Timothy M. O'Brien, and James Turner. The stories and glossaries aim to help "entrepreneurs and their employees make smart technology decisions and purchases, communicate more effectively with in-house information technology staff and, ultimately, please their customers." Read on to learn more.

Source: Security DevCenter

Does your database management system implement the content routing pattern? How would your applications be different if content routing were "baked in" to each database server? Would a rules-based approach to object-persistence make your systems more flexible?

Source: Security DevCenter

Call for Participation Now Open

Sebastopol, CA, October 30, 2008 - O'Reilly introduces Found, the search acquisition and architecture conference, scheduled for June 9-11, 2009, at the San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, CA. Found offers the knowledge required to build search engine optimization (SEO) best practices into development processes. Program co-chairs Vanessa Fox and Nathan Buggia invite proposals for conference sessions, panels, and workshops at Found, to be submitted by December 17, 2008.

Found will be the authoritative place to discover best practices for the nascent search industry and gain a thorough understanding of why search-friendly architecture is mission-critical to businesses of all sizes. Found will change how developers create web applications so that search will connect their sites to their potential customers.

Read the full press release.

Source: Security DevCenter

Sold-out Event Explores the Intersection of World and Web

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 -- TechWeb and O'Reilly Media, Inc.,
co-producers of the annual Web 2.0 Summit (http://www.web2summit.com),
announced that this exclusive event has sold out for the fifth consecutive
year. The event's program will look at how the technologies, values and
cultures of the Web can address the world's most pressing limits. Web 2.0
Summit, which takes place November 5-7 at the Palace Hotel in San
Francisco, will bring the great minds of our time together this week as
leaders of the Internet economy turn their attention to the solutions the
Web can provide to the world at large.

With complex systems seemingly reaching their limits, it has become
apparent that the Web provides an avenue for new ways to address these
limits. The Web's greatest inventions are, at their core, social movements.
Reflecting that growth, the program has expanded to include leaders in the
fields of healthcare, genetics, finance, global business and politics.

Read the full press release.

Source: Security DevCenter

Insights from Found co-chair, Vanessa Fox's Blog:

Those of you who work in search marketing know that there's a ton that goes into search engine optimization. And solutions, particularly for technical issues, can be complicated. It's easy to say that a site shouldn't use tracking parameters in URLs, but it' a bit harder to really dig into the optimal solution that takes into account why the tracking parameters are used and what the system architecture that processes them is like.

Read more.

Source: Security DevCenter

Source: Security DevCenter

Source: developerWorks : Web development : Technical library

Wicket provides an object-oriented approach toward developing dynamic Web-based UI
applications. Because Wicket is pure Java and HTML code, you can leverage your
knowledge of
Java programming to write applications based on Wicket, dramatically reducing your development
time. This article gives you an overview of Wicket and describes how you can use
Wicket to rapidly build Web-based applications in a
non-intrusive and simplified way.