Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy spoke with IDG News Service correspondent Robert McMillan about company changes, plans for 2005 and how open source relates to Solaris and Java.
IBM has decided to let open-source developers use 500 software patents without fear of an infringement lawsuit, a new step in its encouragement of the collaborative programming philosophy.
IBM has updated its well known Reflexive User Interface Builder for constructing and rendering graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Java Swing and Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) based upon a descriptive XML document. Version 1.1 includes the capacity to validate Eclipse SWT GUIs, generate Java source for GUIs constructed by RIB, and embed Java source code in RIB documents. See new developer article on RIB that shows you how to Build Java GUIs simply and quickly.
Although it appears in a "Mainstream" (non-technical) publication, this lengthy indictment of Bill Gates and software patents from 'The Guardian' is another interesting indicator of how the public's view of the issue is shifting.
Hackers are using the newest DRM technology in Microsoft's Windows Media Player to install spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses on unsuspecting PC users. Security researchers have detected the appearance of two new Trojans, Trj/WmvDownloader.A and Trj/WmvDownloader.B, in video files circulating on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks.
"The success of the iPod, Apple's biggest ever consumer hit, was bound to overshadow the company's mainstay business in 2004. In the numbers that really count: revenue, margins and profit, the Macintosh remains Apple's core business. So where did it go?"Read the editorial at TheRegister.
As a recent ACM Queue article observes the evolution of computer language is toward later and later binding and evaluation. So while one might quibble about the virtues of Java or the CLI (also known as microsoft.net) it seems inevitable that more and more software will be written for or at least compiled to virtual machines. While this trend has many virtues, not the least of which is compatibility, current implementations have several drawbacks. However, by cleverly incorporating these features into the OS, or at least including support for them, we can overcome these limitations and in some cases even turn them into strengths.
Since the arrival of the very first versions of Gentoo, some people have announced that "Debian is good, but that's not optimized for ". And this is wrong, you are free to recompile software you use on Debian, using the apt system. Downloading a tarball, uncompressing it, running configure scripts and make install, is an easy task for every Linux user, but this is not adapted for the Debian package management system. Stow was a way which worked without too much effort, but compiled programs were not really integrated in the apt dependancies. The ultimate solution is to use apt-build to recompile a software already packaged for Debian.Read in English - Read in Portuguese (Brazilian)
Flexbeta compares Microsoft's new anti-spyware utility with the two leading spyware stoppers, Ad-Aware and SpyBot. They find that Microsoft's is actually more effective than the other choices, though with the monthly fee for the MS solution, it's not a clear winner.
Eugene Blanchard made his Introduction to Data Communications (also known as Introduction to Networking) available for free. The book covers a broad variety of topics such as RS-232, Ethernet, RF, TCP/IP and many other topics in its 63 chapters. This is a valuable reference and read for those just starting to understand networking and data communications as well as seasoned professionals in the field.
Kerneltrap has a discussion on the proposed patches to Linux kernel which enables Linux to use genetic algorithm for use in CPU and IO schedulers. Genetic algorthims are self optimising over time for particular kinds of workloads and this could be one way of smarter kinds of scheduling. An interesting idea though it yet remains to be seen what would turn up
"A vulnerability in Firefox could expose users of the open-source browser to the risk of phishing scams, security experts have warned. " In a related note, security firm Secunia has discovered three very critical security flaws in IE.
Businessweek asks: Flash memory in a cheaper iPod? A $500 Mac? If the rumors about what Steve Jobs has planned for Apple are true, those moves could be just the start. Also: spy photos of headless iMac or internet hoax? you decide.
Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is now available (despite MS shelving its Itanium version): ZDNet has put Build 1289 through its paces.
