PatchBurn is a tool to patch existing CD/DVD-drivers (under Mac-OS X 10.2.x) or to generate and install new device profiles (under Mac-OS 10.3.x and later). It allows many, otherwise unsupported burners to be used directly with Mac OS X, iTunes and DiscBurner. It has given life to my (otherwise unsupported) external SONY DVD-/+RW drive and so it comes recommended. PatchBurn is harmless, as all it does is create a new description profile for the drive so OSX knows how to deal with it.

Jan Schaumann published the NetBSD Foundation's third quarterly status report, covering the months July through September of 2004.

Brushed aluminum swept aside as Apple's Mail 2.0 will reportedly sport an updated theme.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in a lighthearted mood during a swing through the Netherlands, but did he give a serious clue about Longhorn?

The SuSE linux distribution has been on people's radar in the past year since it became an acquired property of Novell. One of the flagship features of SuSE has always been YaST, SuSE's installation and system management tool. Interesting to see what YaST was like now that it has been open source'd by Novell & share the results here with the screenshots.

While the benefits of virtual machines on a workstation may be quite straightforward, there are more far-reaching ramifications for virtual machines on a server. Micrososft's Virtual Server 2005 integrates with Microsoft's management & third-party tools, while VMware's Virtual Server GSX has its own virtual infrastructure management software called VirtualCentre and can also integrate with third-party tools.

Hewlett-Packard has formally demanded that Sun Microsystems and its president, Jonathan Schwartz, stop publishing what it calls "misleading and factually incorrect statements" about HP's commitment to its version of Unix--but Sun is standing firm.

Red Hat Inc. recently announced a project to provide a centralized management solution for connected and disconnected users that provides administrators with tight control over the systems they manage, using the same tools for connected and disconnected users.

Security Update 2004-09-30 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components: AFP Server, CUPS, NetInfoManager, postfix and QuickTime.

Over the last few weeks there were a lot of articles and discussions about how to manage a project well. From commercial success to user support nearly every subject was set on proof. However, after I've read the comments to the articles my conclusion was very plain: some minds will never change!

Microsoft is developing versions of its Windows operating system with only a subset of the Windows code base, designed for specific server tasks, in a move that could reduce maintenance costs for customers and create products that are less vulnerable to attack. Elsewhere, Ballmer gave an interview about the new digital style of life.

Trove, an open source Java collection package, provides an efficient alternative to the core Java collection classes, especially for implementing collections whose keys or values are primitive types.

Linux handles the machine independent/dependent layer in a unique way, making page table management a bit tricky. Mel Gorman gives you the skinny on the process in this sample chapter.

A free technology preview for Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 (SP2) is available for download and testing. Enhancements coming in Service Pack 2 include stronger default security settings, advanced remote device management, and additional networking and multimedia features that enable further device innovation. Microsoft also announced today Windows Embedded for Point of Service, a new standardized software platform for POS terminals, which will be based on Windows XP Embedded with SP2.