"Over the weekend I was checking the Apple site to find some useful widgets. I found some good ones, but in the process of browsing I came across some rather useless 'Gaming' widgets. Between all of the strange ones I installed, here are the ones that I find the most useless."

"What possible rivalry could there be between two companies, out of which one has been founded over 30 years ago and is running the global software show, while the other is just seven years old and has the purpose to help users search the dense jungle of today's Internet? If we were talking about any other companies, I would have advised you to bet on the first one, but when we're talking about Microsoft and Google, no rules apply."

Free software advocates focus on the ability to share, develop, and improve software as a community effort. But how do these freedoms affect the business community? David Chisnall takes a look.

Route maps are similar to access lists; they both have criteria for matching the details of certain packets and an action of permitting or denying those packets. This chapter explains the basics of Route Maps. Included are sample exercises to help you practice administration and use of Route Maps.

Mandriva has long had its Linux fans, but it's recently been turning its efforts toward the business and desktop markets and, if CEO François Bancilhon has anything to do with it, Mandriva will become as big a Linux name as Red Hat and Novell in the enterprise.

"BeleniX is a free live CD based on the OpenSolaris kernel. With it you can have Solaris, which once ran exclusively on SPARC, powering your modest desktop computer. But with few applications and lacking an installation script, the Live CD does little more than slake a nerd's thirst for a taste of Solaris."

"Every year the Inquirer announces nominations for awards but with a little difference. Often the nominations are there because products or strategies have made just that, little difference. This time round we've invited nominations from our team of worldwide hacks and those who could be bothered have come up with a list of contenders for the Gongs of Little Difference."

"FreeBSD is an enterprise-grade operating system that leaves little to be desired. Most people have tried Linux by now, but a surprisingly large number of people have not yet taken FreeBSD for a spin. Now may well be the optimal time to take the plunge, as FreeBSD 6.0 provides the same rock-solid stability for which FreeBSD is known, and also implements some outstanding new features."

"With the recent introduction of dual-core processors come more questions about system performance. Does a dual-core computer really perform better than a single-core CPU? How does it compare to a true multi-CPU system? What about Hyper-Threading Technology -- is it a thing of the past? Read on for an explanation of dual-core processors and symmetric multiprocessing and what it means to your computing experience."

Virtualization allows you to have multiple "virtual machines," each with its own operating systems running in a sandbox, shielded from each other, all in one physical machine. Each virtual machine shares a common set of hardware, unaware that it is also being used by another virtual machine at the same time. More here.

3D has practically taken over video gaming. Lifelike, if not very pleasant, worlds exist aplenty--worlds that most users find easily navigable without any training whatsoever. Is the world of spreadsheets, word processors, and the like just unsuitable for 3D? Is it a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Or is it that we've lacked imagination? John Littler recently talked to Hideya Kawahara about an open source 3D desktop project that he started and that Sun subsequently took under its wing.

An unwritten consensus in the IT industry is that data shared between object-oriented software and relational databases is best exchanged with object/relational (O/R) mapping frameworks where the entity relationship (ER) model follows the object-oriented model. This article proposes a reversed, lightweight approach supported by a small framework called Amber.

The Iyonix desktop graphics acceleration package Geminus has been officially launched after last month's initial beta release. ArtWorks, Oregano 2, MessengerPro, PDF and similar applications will benefit from Geminus's ability to speed up graphics that are repeatedly drawn on the screen. It is understood there are early plans to make the acceleration available for the RiscPC and A9home platforms. Blueprints also include future support for digital DVI output and alleviating the need for physical modifications to be made to Iyonix video cards for them to work on RISC OS.

Raquel Velasco and Bill Buck have announced that there will be a new developer program similar to the one with the Open Desktop Workstation for the Open Server Workstation (dual 970MP) and the EFIKA 5k2 board. If you are interested to apply please send an email directly to Genesi.