OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

E-Ink Devices Suddenly Become Real

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-02 Hardware 11 Comments

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.

FAQ: HD DVD vs. Blu ray

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-01 Multimedia, AV 63 Comments

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.

Can Sun, Or Anyone, Make DRM Better with Open Source?

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-01 Oracle and SUN 52 Comments

"Sun Microsystems must have figured digital rights management never sounded so good when it recently announced a call for partners in its quest to use open source DRM to "compensate rights holders and stimulate innovation," but Sun's open DReaM (DRM everywhere available) Project is as scary as any other content control nightmare to open source and digital freedom proponents."

Torvalds’ Baby Comes of Age

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-01 Linux 61 Comments

"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 Releases ZETA Demo CD

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-01 Zeta 38 Comments

"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."

Triviad Beta Started

Submitted by Andre van Schoubroeck 2005-10-01 OS News 2 Comments

Triavid is a web implementation of a TriangleOS VFDBS system. The service will eventually be fully integrated in TriangleOS, allowing users to use the web-disk as just any other drive. All objects stored on the web-disk can be viewed from any PC with an internet connection. The web-disk can also be accessed with by a browser, by using a user interface similar to that of the the TriangleOS GUI.

Hackers Fail To Break Into Via’s StrongBox

Andrew Youll 2005-10-01 Privacy, Security 21 Comments

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.

170Mbps Through an Electrical Socket Demoed

Andrew Youll 2005-10-01 Internet 11 Comments

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.

Scoping Your Transition Projects

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-01 macOS 7 Comments

Read this article to determine your transition path and learn what you’ll need to do to make your application ready for Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Arch Linux Founder Lays Out Plan

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-30 Linux 59 Comments

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

Bluetooth Boogies Java File Transfer with JSR-82

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-30 Java 5 Comments

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.

Gizmo on a PocketPC via the SJPhone SIP Client

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-30 Wireless 6 Comments

After some trial and error, I got the popular Gizmo run on my PocketPC via the SJPhone SIP client (there is no native Gizmo client for PDAs). Read more for the instructions.

Microsoft Confirms Next XP Service Pack

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-30 Windows 51 Comments

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

Ubuntu Carves Niche in Linux Landscape

Eugenia Loli 2005-09-30 Ubuntu 49 Comments

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.

EU Deal Threatens End to US Dominance of Internet

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-30 Internet 247 Comments

At PrepCom3, a dramatic last-minute deal drawn up by the EU may mark the end of the US government's control of the internet. In essence, a new version of the current overseeing body ICANN and an end to the US government's overall control of the DNS. The US was scathing about the proposals, within minutes telling delegates that it "can't in any way allow any changes" that would prevent it from having overall control of the internet. Other countries, like Brazil, China, Iran and Cuba support the proposal. Brazil's ambassador outlined: "It is not a question of being anti-ICANN, it's about having a very clear and open and democratic and inclusive mechanism of overview of certain functions that today are performed by ICANN with no kind of supervision."

US State Finalises Its Microsoft Snub

Submitted by Sansta 2005-09-30 In the News 100 Comments

The commonwealth of Massachusetts has finalised its decision to standardise desktop applications on OpenDocument, a format not supported by Microsoft Office. State agencies in the executive branch are now supposed to migrate to OpenDocument-compliant applications by 1 January, 2007, a change that will affect about 50 000 desktop PCs. The reference model also confirms that Adobe's PDF format is considered an "open format".

Apple Making Inroads in Enterprise Market

Submitted by Hakime Seddik 2005-09-30 Apple 9 Comments

A recent report by market research firm IDC gives Apple high marks for its efforts in the Enterprise storage and server markets. While Apple is best known for its iPod and Macintosh product lines, IDC analysts say the competition is taking interest in what Apple is doing in the Enterprise market, as well.

Installing Debian

Submitted by CatNap 2005-09-30 Debian 24 Comments

"The experience of installing Debian can vary widely depending on your hardware and requirements. There simply isn't room here to provide a comprehensive installation guide. Instead, you'll find an outline of the major points of the installation process, and plenty of information about where to go and what to do when things don't work as expected." In related news, work is under way to provide a gtk+ front-end to the Debian installer.

Release of Open Dylan 1.0 Beta 1

Submitted by Magnum 2005-09-30 General Development 41 Comments

"Dylan is an advanced, object-oriented, dynamic language which supports the rapid development of programs. When needed, the programmer can later optimize programs for more efficient execution by supplying type information to the compiler. Nearly all entities in Dylan (including functions, classes, and basic data types such as integers) are first class objects. Additionally Dylan supports multiple inheritance, polymorphism, multiple dispatch, and many other advanced features."

Take Charge of Processor Affinity

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-30 Linux 2 Comments

Knowing a little bit about how the Linux 2.6 scheduler treats CPU affinity can help you design better userspace applications. Soft affinity means that processes do not frequently migrate between processors, whereas hard affinity means that processes run on processors you specify.