In this video (.torrent, Quicktime) "you will see great attempts at crashing the Haiku app_server, some commentary on the robustness of the code, and a staggering amount of threads for Java running on BeOS R5." Here is more about the video.

"Localhost is a program that lets you access a shared, world-wide file system through your web browser. This file system is maintained in a fully decentralized way by all of the computers running Localhost. The program uses BitTorrent technology, and new distributed hashtable technology called Kademlia. Every user accesses the system from the same root folder. You can change any folder (including the root folder) by adding files and/or folders to it."

The featured content section on Apple's Developer Connection has some interesting articles. First, "Learn about universal binaries, and how to get your applications ready for Intel-based Macintoshes." Secondly, "You need Xcode to build universal binaries. Read the latest on Apple's IDE." There are more articles, so feel free to look around.

This may not be news for the experienced Linux users here, but for those who are new to Linux, someone sent me a link to this new online Linux magazine geared towards new Linux users. The magazine is published by the same company as publishes the Linux Journal, it is well laid out and is free to subscribe to.

The Qt 4 Resource Center has added a new article to the collection. This time, it shows how to intercept signals and slots using a spying class. The article also shows how to implement a custom color-picker widget with support for both RGB and HSV.

Simon Wilson has released the first public version of his 3D graphics driver for Iyonix users. The software library, ported from BeOS and compatible with the popular OpenGL interface, employs the Nvidia PCI graphics card used in the XScale powered Iyonix. OpenGL based applications built with Simon's port should enjoy hardware accelerated graphics, thanks to the modest GeForece 2 MX card which, until now, has been left unutilised under RISC OS.

"We will shed more light on the whole Apple versus x86 PC, IBM G5 versus Intel CPU discussion by showing you what the G5 is capable of when running Linux. This gives us insight on the strength and weakness of Mac OS X, as we compare Linux and Mac OS X on the same machine."

Microsoft plans to build more Unix features into future versions of its Windows Server operating system and cease work on its separate Services For Unix product. Microsoft plans to include some of those features in Windows Server 2003 R2, an update to the server OS due at the end of this year. At the same time, the company said it is not planning any further releases of the standalone Services For Unix product. DiStasio, a director in the Windows Server unit, said the plan is to build Unix tools into releases beyond R2 as well, but he did not rule out that there might be some tools offered separate from the OS.

Microsoft's program to ensure that developers build secure code is showing early signs of success, according to a senior executive from the company. The Security Development Lifecycle program is one of the results of Microsoft's announcement outlining concentration on security and secure development.

Sun Microsystems has quietly open-sourced its web user interface building tool: JavaServer Faces 1.2. Sun released the source code last week under the company's CDDL.

Some prominent figures in the Linux community believe that as enterprises increase their use of Linux on the desktop, Microsoft will be forced to consider offering a version of Office for Linux. "When the market share gets to a certain point, Microsoft will, just as it did with Apple in the past, make Office available on Linux," CEO Stuart Cohen of OSDL said in an interview. My take: Mr. Cohen is forgetting two important things: Excel was first released for the Mac (1985) and Word wasn't popular until MS ported it from DOS to Mac (1985).

Microsoft TechNet has published a high-level introduction to some of the new features and capabilities of the next release of Windows focusing on security, deployment, desktop management, end-user productivity and mobility.

Two research reports sponsored by IBM argue that Linux is less expensive to buy and operate than Windows or Unix. The first paper claims Linux is 40% less expensive than a comparable x86-based Windows server and 54% less than a comparable Sparc-based Solaris server. The second that using Linux has "Second Stage Benefits" such as attracting IT workers, among whome open source is increasingly popular.

"I need to ask the Blastwave and OpenSolaris communities for your help. Despite my best efforts at gathering corporate sponsorship, Blastwave is once again in a financial crisis. We are due to be evicted from the datacenter in three days, and there is little that I can do personally to stop this." You can help out by donating, and while doing that you can also participate in this survey set up to estimate the size of the Blastwave community.