Microsoft junkies have been waiting and waiting for Windows XP Service Pack 2, but it seems the end is finally in sight.

Just some time before Sun Microsoystem launches their greatest Java 5.0 edition, they released maintenance version of their 1.4 line: Java 1.4.2_05. It consists of some bugsfixings listed here.

While many of our team members are hard at work, coding and working on updating their team pages and adding all of the official site content, there are some other things that need to be done. We are going to need some Newbie Help Files and some "Developer Tutorials to be written in order to fill some large blank spots on our new site. I posted more information in our forums. If you would like to help out with either of these, please see either the Newbie Help Files thread or the Developer Tutorials thread."

Analysis Sun says open sourcing Java code will fragment and devalue the platform. Sun's opponents say that under the current community process development is too slow. They're both right, but the debate, which Scott McNealy regards as synthetic - an issue manufactured by hypocritical competitors - highlights what people really want from a technology. It's an issue that finds Sun on the right side, but failing to convince skeptics. Read the rest of the analysis at TheRegister.

The Libranet development team has released Libranet 2.8.1 as a free download for trial purposes.

Sun has brought the debate over who is "more open source" down to the playground level, and both companies could do better at it, eWEEK's Linux & Open Source Editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols writes.

There's a good tips and tricks article about CodeRuler on developerworks. The game has a simple premise: You are the imperial ruler of your very own medieval kingdom. Your peasants and knights depend on your brilliant strategic thinking, agile adaptability, and superior Java programming skill to survive, increase, and prosper. Your objective as a player is to write Java code that simulates this ruler. CodRuler is a game that helps you build upon your Java programming skills. CodeRuler is free.

I have to admit that I am an Opera fan; I started using it when a friend of mine came with version 6.0 and installed it to me. My first impression was not very good because the screen was crowded with toolbars, icons and things. But I spent a few minutes examining each one and removing all; I like the screen clean, not filled with toolbars and things that waste screen space, after all, 1024 x 768 is not enough.

Millan has released a LiveCD of GNU/kFreeBSD. You can try it out directly booting the CD. The software can also be very easily installed to harddisk. You can find more about the GNU C Library with FreeBSD kernel here. Please read the 00README and INSTALL for additional notes. If you have questions, suggestions or any feedback, please direct it to the [email protected] mailing list or through IRC (#gnu-kbsd).

Microsoft is trying to dampen speculation that it will make a major acquisition in the antivirus market.

As part of its push to boost Java on personal computers, Sun Microsystems has licensed software called Watson that's used to find and present information from the Internet.

There is a remotely exploitable bug in all Linux kernel 2.6 series due to using incorrect variable type. Vulnerability is connected to netfilter subsystem and may cause DoS. It's disclosed only when using iptables with rules matching TCP options (i.e. --tcp-option). There is no difference what action is taking up by matching rule.

A programming error in the handling of some Linux system calls may result in memory locations being accessed without proper validation. This bugs affect all 4.x and 5.x lines of FreeBSD. Source is the german computer site, Heise, for more info about this bug here.

If you have an old C program from years ago, it is possible to re-write it for the AmigaOne and AmigaOS 4. Most of the author's experience is with SAS 6.5x and Storm C (which is based on GCC). Click here to find some tips to get your software converted. Update: Two more such articles, here and here.