This tutorial describes how to do automated server backups with the tool rdiff-backup. rdiff-backup lets you make backups over a network using SSH so that the data transfer is encrypted. The use of SSH makes rdiff-backup very secure because noone can read the data that is being transferred. rdiff-backup makes incremental backups, thus saving bandwidth.

Max Brunning has posted a brief comparison of how these three Operating Systems approach a number of basic kernel tasks. He has a brief look at: Scheduling and Schedulers, Memory Management and Paging, and File Systems. Max is an Instructor who spends his time teaching Solaris internals, device drivers, and kernel crash dump analysis and debugging.

YellowTAB has released a service pack for its Zeta operating system, bumping the version number to 1.1. This .pdf (in German, English version not (yet) available) describes the changes in a detailed fashion. In addition, "due to the unexpected amount of interest in yellowTAB's VideoEditor, we have decided not to release a stand-alone ProVersion. Instead, the ProVersion and its many anxiously awaited features will be integrated into our Zeta DeluxeEdition release."

The debate over whether or not RISC OS should be open sourced took another turn this week when Peter Naulls argued that "certain parts" of the OS could be released under an open source licence. The State-side coder behind various ports including Firefox said this would ideally include "crucial parts that affect all users, even if they don't realise it, parts that can be created from scratch and made much better than the Acorn original, and parts which can managed by specific developers who already understand them well."

Popularized through its use in a number of well-known Web application services like GMail, Google Maps, Flickr, and Odeo.com, AJAX provides Web developers with a way of expanding the value and function of their Web applications by using asynchronous XML messaging. This article shows you how to implement a Web browser-based SOAP Web services client using the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) design pattern.

A Microsoft patch meant to fix critical security flaws in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is causing trouble for some users, the company said Friday.

Here is a list of usability issues concerning GNOME. "Some time ago I decided to note everything that didn't make sense to me while using Hoary/Breezy with GNOME, or what I thought could be implemented better. I found the time to go through the list again, clarifying somt things and writing some use cases where each problem applies. Some of these might seem very nitpicky, but details are important too."

Microsoft is poised to release to testers the second Community Technology Preview release of Vista, paving the way for a second full-fledged beta, which is now expected in December. Among the new features which could find their way into the updated build are a number of IE 7.0 enhancements; the resurrected "Sidebar" task pane; Windows Media Player 11.0; and new networking functionality.

"The tc1100 is an incredibly powerful tool, and makes a terrific supplement to a desktop. The software side of the equation is also fairly solid, and actually quite useful, because of digital Ink, not handwriting recognition. Tablet PC is a killer app. Just don’t expect to throw your keyboard away just yet."

The ClearQuest plug-in for Eclipse enables you to perform ClearQuest activities (tasks) in an Eclipse environment. While many of you are familiar with Rational ClearQuest and/or Eclipse, this article is aimed at bridging the gap to provide you with a good understanding of the ClearQuest Client for Eclipse. For ClearQuest fans, this is an offer that is hard to refuse - save a significant amount with this sepcial deal on Rational ClearQuest Licenses.

IronPython is the codename for an alpha release of the Python programming language for the .NET platform. It supports an interactive interpreter with fully dynamic compilation. It is well integrated with the rest of the framework and makes all .NET libraries easily available to Python programmers.

Intentionally or not, Linspire may be trying to become the "Education Linux" distribution. The desktop Linux software maker, formerly known as Lindows, Thursday launched a new, low-cost licensing program for schools who wish to install a Linux desktop operating system as an alternative to the more expensive Microsoft Windows operating system.

New releases from the GNUstep project include an update to the GNUstep Startup package, which includes all four core GNUstep packages: make, base, gui and back. Updated Windows binaries for the base and gui packages just came out today. Also, recently the latest version of their workspace manager, GWorkspace, was released.

We will try to get a GPRS internet connection using Linux-based phones as modems and route the connection to Mac OS X via Bluetooth. This guide is for Mac OS X, the US Cingular GPRS service only (other providers might work out of the box with the phone, others might not at all -- you never know with GPRS) and any of the Linux-based Motorola smartphones like the A760, A780, E680/i etc (they are all identical regarding their 'modem' functionality).