The Scrum methodology can pose a challenge for software testers who are used to more traditional waterfall-inspired development processes. Jonathan Kohl relates his experiences working on Scrum teams who found some clear advantages in changing their methods.

Ravindra Okade explores three different approaches to creating a .NET service: a timer-based service, a service using a single worker thread, and a service using multiple worker threads.

"Well, they've done it again. In prime-time. With malice aforethought. The duplicitous droogs, the denizens of deep-doodoo, I'm talking about Bill Gates' Microsoft: caught in a bald-faced lie about HD DVD-ROM discs. This is news? Not any more than the fact it's hot in Texas this summer or that Katrina caused a lot of damage. It is, after all, the Microsoft way: dishonesty in all things."

Another pre-release build of Mac OS X 10.4.3 was among the software seeds reportedly released by . Now at build 8F31, the third maintenance release to Tiger is is approaching 110MB in size and includes well over 500 minor fixes and enhancements. The frequency in which Apple has released new builds of the update indicates that a release is on tap for the first half of October.

E-Ink, the pioneering electronic paper developer that's been announcing handheld devices "in a year or so" since 2001, has quietly found a manufacturer for its screens, and is not only offering developer kits, they've got an actual mass-market product set to launch in China q4. The folks at Hong Kong-based Jinke, makers of the $299/E250 E-Ink devices, are so excited, they're talking a V2 model running Linux with an SDK that allows for user-created apps before next summer. Read more.

Microsoft and Intel last week tried to swing the computing, consumer electronics and entertainment industry toward HD DVD in a format war to establish a higher-capacity successor to today's DVD. It didn't work.

"No matter what strides the new generation of open-source companies make, they all owe a big debt to Torvalds. In 1991 the Finnish programmer started Linux as a project at the University of Helsinki. Fourteen years later the reverberations are still being felt." In this email interview Torvalds discusses his thoughts on where open source is heading and the challenges the Linux community faces.

"YellowTAB is proud to announce the immediate availability of the ZETA Demo CD. The CD gives users the chance to test ZETA without having to install any software. This lets prospective customers convince themselves of speed, security and simplicity of ZETA before purchasing the full version. The ZETA Demo CD costs EUR 9.95 ($12,-) and is available from regular ZETA resellers."

Hackers at a security conference failed to break into Via Technologies' StrongBox security application during a competition. The Taiwanese microprocessor vendor offered a $5000 (EUR 4157) prize to any hacker who could break into StrongBox, a secure virtual hard drive of up to 40GB designed to protect data from computer intruders. Announced on Tuesday, the application uses a combination of hardware-based SHA-1 and 256-bit AES encryption.

Matsushita showed off an exceptionally high-speed Internet through an ordinary electrical socket at a Japanese trade-fair. Matsushita Electronics has claimed a breakthrough in powerline broadband by running an Internet connection through an ordinary electrical socket, using a new chip. At a tradeshow in Japan on Thursday the company demonstrated a network capable of running at 170Mbps over the electrical network.

Judd Vinet, Arch Linux's founder, posted a message discussing the future of his distro and his plans.

The Bluetooth protocol stack lets you use several methods, including RFCOMM and Object Exchange (OBEX), to send and receive files between devices. Become familiar with the Java language library used to control a Bluetooth device and learn how to use JSR-82 API. OBEX is great way to send object data, context, and metadata about the payload.

Microsoft has revealed plans to release a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system.

It's not easy building a new version of Linux and establishing a large following. But with the Ubuntu project, one team of programmers has managed to do just that.