The internet is full of hosts running unpatched versions of Windows. Should Microsoft release patching worms to fix every vulnerable system on the Internet in a matter of minutes? That's one of the hot questions that security researcher Jose Nazario, famous for his WormBlog, answered in this interview on SecurityFocus. It's a nice read, especially when they start comparing computer worms to nature phenomena.

The encryption scheme you rely on today might be full of holes just a few years down the road. Learn how far we've come in the last few decades, and why your apps need to be ready for change. This article builds on a previous article about Enigma, Germany's WWII-era encryption system.

Intel, which next week is expected to announce plans to move to a new processor architecture, is switching to a new yardstick to measure processor performance: performance per watt. Intel's announcement will publicly signal an internal shift that's already taken place. After years of promoting clock speed, it's now emphasizing overall performance and power-efficiency.

Security, cost-savings, performance and innovation are the primary reasons to move to Linux, says Novell Linux developer evangelist Darren R. Davis, stating what is to him the obvious. Rather than dillydallying with that question, he'd rather help IT shops and developers get moving to Linux. Davis explains how to port Unix and Windows applications to Linux and how to make those Linux apps support multiple distributions in this interview.

In Virginia, patrons waiting in line to buy county school surplus iBooks for $50 started a riot when the doors opened, with an old man getting trampled, people crushing a baby stroller, and someone trying to run people down with his car. One iBook hopeful admitted that he used his folding chair as a weapon to fight off people who were trying to cut in line. Take a lesson from Steve Jobs, Henrico County: make them a little more expensive, and prevent the bloodshed. (Editor's note for the humor-impaired: no, I don't really think Macs are too expensive. I'm making fun of people who do)

An intrepid hacker has got Windows 95 running on a Sony Playstation Portable. The PSP uses a MIPS R4000 CPU and Windows is actually running emulated on Bochs, so it's probably not that useable, and it's no substitute for the ongoing effort to get Linux running natively on the Sony gaming handheld.

This light hearted review is a look at how a girl who uses Windows (and is non-technical) deals with using Fedora Linux instead. In fact, she likes it so much, she uses it all the time now. If she can use Fedora Linux, anyone can.

An anonymous reader writes "One thing should be mentioned - the VLOS Installer is cool." Here's a review of VLOS PPC, which seems to indicate that while there are still some issues, it's certainly coming along at a nice pace.

Solaris Express Community Release build 20 is out. You can download it here. It should be available on the OpenSolaris page soon. In addition, Sun Cluster 3.1 8/05 has been released. More info here.

If you're writing production code in Ruby and haven't been exposed to optimization strategies, take a look at this tutorial. Learn how to profile and optimize Ruby code (free reg. req.) with RubyInline and ZenOptimize, two tools that make this process easier.

This bootable ISO image contains NetBSD 3.99.7 and allows you to boot NetBSD/i386 -current without having to install to a hard disk. The LiveCD was initially intended to be a rescue cdrom, but is now capable of much more. KDE-3.4.2 and all kde3-i18n packages were included.

Here's a review of SuSE 9.3: "Right now I'm looking at a SuSE 9.3 installation which offers me everything I'm used to plus more. It's hard to say if and when I'll switch, but it sure looks tempting. In more than one way SuSE feels so much better than Ubuntu, and it's hard to resist all the small details and finishes Novell put into the product."

This is the 4th installment of a series of guides to configuring and installing PC-BSD. The past 3 parts can be found here. In this part of the guide they cover installing Amarok, Limewire, Azureus and Streamtuner.

"OpenBSD's Theo de Raadt has bumped the version identifier from 3.7-current to 3.8-beta in CVS HEAD. Now is an especially good time to test snapshots."